Schmozzes & Screwjobs 06.28.07

Posted by Daniel Wilcox on 06.28.2007

Not a damn thing to do with Screwjobs, as you'd expect. This is all about one man's downward spiral from one of the greatest wrestlers the sport has ever seen, to his killing of his family, and his own suicide. Chris Benoit, we hardly knew ye.

I'm sure nobody noticed that me and multiple columns were absent last week, but they were and I'm sorry about that, readers. It's funny how computers can be the greatest invention in the world one minute, and the most frustrating machines the next, but at least now I have my brand new iMac that seems to be to perfection and as of right now I am back in business. It's a shame, therefore, that my return to 411 is on such a sour note as today all I want to discuss is the murder of Nancy and Daniel Benoit, and the man that killed them before doing the same to himself, former WWE World Heavyweight Champion Chris Benoit.

Seeing as I was without a computer for the last 10 days or so, I had no idea of the tragic events of the past weekend until earlier this morning. I'd only had access to a computer while at work and that was only for brief periods of time so I used that time to email Larry and others at 411 to inform them of my situation, so my insight into events taking place in the wrestling world has been somewhat limited to say the least recently. And I was OK with that – it was good to have a break and have a few extra hours in the week to do other things, and I certainly enjoyed last week's SmackDown more without knowing the spoilers, something that I haven't been able to do for probably 5 years. But I was eager to get back to writing columns, recapping Raw and hearing you, the readers, insights.

That all changed this morning when I heard the news. I didn't want to know anything about what had happened. I didn't want to be known as a wrestling fan at the time. I wanted to disconnect myself from the whole sick incident. But I couldn't because Chris Benoit was and is, one of the guys that I have looked up to for a very long time and I didn't want to turn my back on him or the business. Before I really talk about what I've been feeling the last several hours and actually celebrate the career of Benoit, let me just say this; I understand that many of you will not agree with my opinions. Many of you will think that some of the stuff I say is downright sick and that I am in someway supporting a murderer. I cannot control my feelings towards this whole incident and Chris Benoit the man or the performer. This is just what has been going through my head all day and how I'm dealing that. All I wish is that you respect my view and find it your heart to at least understand where I'm coming from. Many of the 411 staff have already written about Chris Benoit and his family's demise this week and I'm sure more will later on – they don't deserve to be knocked or hated for what they write. Arnold Furious gets hate mail for recapping Raw last night? That's just fucking stupid – the guy didn't have to do that under the circumstances and he deserves credit for doing so. Bare in mind he didn't even know the full story at the time. What I'm getting is this; by all means shoot me an email and tell me how you're feeling, what you think, or that you disagree with me. But don't condemn me for writing what you're about to read. Try to understand my point of view, and if you can't don't bother emailing me.

I first heard something of the incident when I was in town shopping this morning. Rgames is a shop that sells second hand games, CDs, DVDs, and also a lot of wrestling stuff and very cheap prices. I've brought a ton of stuff from there and have a good relationship with the two guys that run the place. Today one said to me "Hey, what's going on with that guy?" He wasn't really interested in wrestling but he'd obviously heard something. When I told him I didn't know what he was talking about he elaborated; "Some wrestler died or something and killed his family as well."

The first thing that I thought was he meant Vince McMahon, so I corrected him that Vince had been blown up in a limo, his family weren't involved and it was all a storyline anyone. "No that was weeks ago, I'm talking about this weekend." I told him I didn't know and left. I get home and log onto 411 and there's the whole sordid mess on my computer screen.

To say I was stunned would be a tremendous understatement. I was stunned when Eddie Guerrero passed away on November 13 2005. I was stunned when Sherri Martel died last Friday. When you find out one of your heroes is a killer, you don't know what to believe. One thing that I was definitely was denial. I didn't want to believe it. Let's face it, before the start of this week we would all have said that we thought Chris Benoit was a great guy – a family man, a hard worker and a genuine class act. And for over 39 and a half years of his life, and still have no doubt whatsoever that he was. But then again, maybe he had been beating his wife, mistreating his son, for years without nobody ever realising it. Nobody knows what goes on behind closed doors.

I'm man enough to admit that I spent a fair portion of the afternoon crying. The more and more pieces of news that I read, the more devastated I became. One of the last pieces that I read was Furious' Raw Report. Reading about some of those tributes to Benoit was really, really hard. The stuff from Dean Malenko, Chavo Guerrero, Triple H was all difficult to take in. I didn't watch Raw live on Monday because I didn't want or need to be staying up until 4am, and when I heard that WWE wasn't going to air the replays in the UK (and Canada) I was extremely pissed off. I didn't care what the guy had done; I wanted to watch the damn tribute show. Now I think that it would have been hard to watch, yet while I understand the WWE's position, I still want to see the tribute.

However, murdering someone, anyone, is wrong. It's the most heinous thing a person can do, and to kill your wife and child is callous, disturbing and sickening. I felt physically sick just reading about the whole affair. How could a guy that I thought I knew, despite having never met or spoken to the guy, be a killer? I didn't understand it, and I still don't. Those close to Benoit thought he was the ultimate family guy, as was evident in their comments from Raw. Chavo Guerrero said that he would trust Benoit with the life of his kids. It all just goes to show the mind frame of a murderer is amazingly complex, and one that no one can ever truly understand let alone predict. Who knows what was going through Benoit's head this past weekend? Chavo Guerrero clearly didn't, and I doubt that Chris Benoit did either.

There is enough evidence to convince me that Chris Benoit was out of his mind, or certainly on the way. I've read people's comments – that Benoit premeditated the whole thing – after all, he killed his wife one day, his son the next, and himself the next. This clearly wasn't a short but devastating fit of rage or a moment of madness that cost an entire family their lives. But that does not mean that Chris had been planning this, or wanted to do any of it. If a man is not of stable mind, there is not a single person in the world that can say what he was thinking, in most cases, not even the person themselves, not that it would help matters here. In all honesty, I don't want to think of Benoit as a callous premeditating killer. And I don't believe that he is. There are killers out there who do what they do for reasons that they believe they can justify – some are probably conscious of what they do, others maybe not so much. Chris Benoit in my mind, is leaning towards the latter. I truly believe that.

Please don't get me wrong. I am in no way attempting to justify murder. It's sick, it's wrong. But as far as I'm concerned not every case is anywhere near easy to judge or to place blame on an individual for. Yes, Benoit killed his wife and son, yes, had he still been alive today, he should go to jail for the 25 years that represents life imprisonment. But my perception of him would still be a guy that was not 100% sane. And whatever he did, he'd still be the man that had entertained me from the very first I ever saw him wrestle, to the last time I saw him wrestle, which was last Tuesday. Chris Benoit was as good a wrestler as there has ever been in this business. He's never been the biggest, the most charismatic, but he gave his all in the ring night in night out for over 20 years and for that I thank him. I thank him for the memories he has given me over the years.

Will my memory of Chris Benoit be tarnished? No doubt about it. There's no way of getting around what happened. Will I still try to remember every good match he ever had and forget the fact that he murdered two innocent people? Absolutely. And that's what I'm going to do right now. My favourite Chris Benoit moments. I don't care if you don't like it, but I can't just forget the hundreds of times I enjoyed seeing this man on TV.

My Favourite Chris Benoit Moments

In no particular order;

Chris Benoit vs. Chris Jericho – Ladder Match – Royal Rumble 2001 - Most of the ladder matches that I had seen to this point in my WWE fandom were spotfests involving The Hardys and Edge and Christian. Don't get me wrong, I loved them, but already the novelty was starting to where off. The match at Royal Rumble was a different kind of match. Yes, there were spots, but this was physical. These guys displayed a sense of toughness that had never seen in a wrestling ring before. Chris Benoit getting drilled with a steel chair in mid air during a suicide dive was an absolutely incredible visual that I still picture vividly to this day. Benoit didn't win this match but I think it is my second favourite Wolverine match of all time and I've always thought of it as five stars. I re-watched this and several other Benoit matches today and I still think it deserves five stars. Ladder matches are rarely done like this anymore – they are more based on the high-risk aspect and conversely suffer due to the large amounts of downtime. While it may provide a short thrill for the fans, none of those ladder matches really hold well when you reflect on them years later. This match, and those between Michaels and Ramon, work because they are more intense and you're carried through the entire match as opposed to stop-start reactions from the audience based on what is being seen in the ring. This is an amazing match that is still one of my favourites to date.

Chris Benoit vs. Orlando Jordan – Summerslam 2005 - Watching this match always makes me smile. Benoit had been in limbo since losing the World Heavyweight Championship a year earlier to Randy Orton, and Jordan had been stinking up arenas for five months as the United States Champion. Benoit helped OJ to his first decent match as champ at The Great American Bash a month earlier but we were all extremely disappointed that Benoit didn't get the gold there. But this rematch was something special. Benoit forced Jordan to tap out in about 25 seconds to the Crippler Crossface. Tremendous! Normally, everyone would be complaining about how Jordan was getting buried, but the fact was OJ was so bad and Benoit was so good, that nobody cared. What's better is that Benoit would do the same thing on a number of occasions in the coming weeks. This is just one of many examples of how Chris Benoit was wrestling's saviour.

Chris Benoit, Chavo Guerrero and Rey Mysterio induct Eddie Guerrero into the Hall of Fame - Eddie's death was the first and (until this week) only time that I ever really felt bad about a wrestler's passing. Granted, it's always sad when someone passes away but I never shared a connection with other wrestlers like I did with Eddie. I'd only seen Chris Candido wrestle a handful of times when he passed. I wasn't even a wrestling fan when Owen Hart died. I'd never seen many others wrestlers who died in the ring. It's like if I read the obituaries, I wouldn't cry over guys I didn't know. But Eddie was always one of my favourites and I was devastated when he died. I knew and understood the friendship between Eddie, Benoit, Rey and Chavo, and I knew all the history. Their speeches were all tremendous, but to see one of the toughest guys in the business, Chris Benoit, cut up like that was surreal but I respected that more than most of the stuff your average wrestler does in the ring. Benoit, along with Chavo and Rey, did Eddie proud that night and did him proud every time he came through that curtain. Viva la Rasa!

Chris Benoit vs. Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels – WrestleMania XX - As if there would be any other. Assuming that wrestling fans still care enough to remember, this will be the match that people look back to and say, "Yeah, that was Benoit's greatest match." It always helps when you're working with two all-time greats in Triple H and Shawn Michaels, but this match was all about the Rabid Wolverine. There aren't many times that I remember a commentators words exactly in any sport. One is when Manchester United won the treble in 1999 – Clive Tyldesley's "and Solksjaer has won it!" is immortal in my book, and JR's "Chris Benoit's 18 year odyssey has culminated…" is equally as unforgettable. The whole thing was made even more special by the fact that it was Triple H who submitted in the main event of Mania. Triple H! We'd become accustom to The Game doing the job in the next few years, but this had never happened before at the time. People have called this the greatest match ever, I don't know if it is, but it is one of the best, no doubt about it. The closing moments of Mania XX see Benoit embracing his best friend Eddie Guerrero in the ring. I thought that was the most tear-jerking thing I'd ever see in a wrestling ring at the time. I re-watched the match today. Benoit also embraces his family, Nancy and Daniel, in the ring afterwards, and that was more tear jerking. Ironically both incidents are tear jerking now for completely the opposite reasons. Benoit and Eddie, best friends, had both made it to the top. No I watch Chris, Nancy and Daniel in the ring, and I realise for all we know, that emotion, particularly on Chris' part, could have been fake. And even if it wasn't, just 3 years after that, Chris would kill them both.

Sometimes life can be even scarier than death. With death, you know that that is it; with life, you never know what's coming and a bullet like this can tear you apart. I wish I could say "at least the Benoit's are in heaven," but I can't because that would make me a hypocrite. I'm not religious and I don't see how you can be at a time like this. If God's so great why do men murdered their wives and their sons? The events of the past few days have only made me realised that however well you think you know a person, or however much you think you've got life sussed, things can change in a heartbeat and we can't change squat. It's sad but that's life.

Please don't judge Chris Benoit for his actions this past weekend. You don't know what frame of mind he was in. For all you know, he may have been completely insane for the past few weeks/months/years and this could have been coming for a long time. We just don't know what he was thinking. Nobody could have ever seen this coming, so trying to pretend that you know all the answers is stupid and pointless. I appreciate everyone who has taken the time out to read this, or any of my work over the last several months. This has been the hardest thing I've ever had to write, and I hope that I never have to write something like this again. But nobody knows what's around the corner, so let's not pretend we do.

Let's just remember who the victims are in all of this. Predominantly, Nancy and Daniel Benoit. They were both innocent and they were killed. Daniel was 7 and had his whole life ahead of him. Nancy was a terrific woman, according to all sources, those that knew her and those that didn't. Also, Chris' other children, David and Megan, have lost a brother, a father and a stepmother. The friends and family of these people will suffer for a very long time. The final victim – Chris. Yes, he killed himself, but can you imagine how fucked up he must've been in those last few days? I hope no one I know ever gets that messed up. Ever. My thoughts are with all of you.

The news has been all over the world. There was even a small, but pictured, article in my local newspaper which is distributed to just a couple of hundred thousand people. The article touched on the steroids theory, as have most articles on the matter, but the thing that disturbed me was the image. It was Benoit holding the World Heavyweight Championship. He was scowling, and he looked like he could kill his wife and child. Any one moment can change your perception of life completely around. A week ago, no one in their wildest nightmares would have imagined Chris Benoit to be a killer, but one way or another, he is. Who knows what Benoit was thinking, or what (if anything) he was suffering from, but I bet whatever it was, even he didn't see it sneaking up on him. And neither would any of us. Who knows what the future holds, but what this has taught me is that none of us have the answers; hell we don't even know the questions. Until you've been in the position of Benoit, you can't tell me he is a callous bastard, a vicious killer or a methodical murderer. Nor can any police officer or article on wwe.com.

As I prepare to put this into the system, and look and Benoit's face on 411's main page, I realise that this is real. I still cannot believe, nor do I want to. I don't understand what has gone on, and neither do any of you. So instead of being angry, be sorry for Nancy, Daniel, David, Megan, every other friend or family member of theirs, and even Chris Benoit.

Chris Benoit obviously wasn't satisfied with changing professional wrestling in the ring – he's now changed professional wrestling forever from outside the ring. Thank you, Chris Benoit, for the countless times you busted your ass in that ring for my entertainment, for my readers' entertainment, and for the entertainment of every wrestling fan worldwide.

Rest in peace, Nancy, Daniel, and Chris.

***

Normal service shall resume next week, providing no wrestler kills anybody, and I'll have a Screwjob from sometime during the infamous InVasion angle as well as a bunch of other stuff I'm sure you'll be dying to read. And just to clear up a few things, those emails I received from my last column, which seems ages ago, won't be responded to because right now, it all seems irrelevant and I want to start afresh next week. But thanks to those who did write in. Hell, I can't even remember what it was all about now. Until next week, this is Dan Wilcox, one shaken up son of a bitch.